|
By Missy K 2/18/06
Speaking of, I first saw Martin Gerber when he was playing for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. He had semi-regular appearances on “3 Stars” on “NHL2Night,” where John Buccigross would sing his praises. However, the Ducks ultimately believed their goaltending was solid enough in J.S. Guigere and Ilya Bryzgalov, and traded their late-round 2001 draft pick to Carolina the summer of 2004. Since then, the Carolina Hurricanes have only rocketed to the top of the NHL in the 2005-06 season. 28 wins, 9 losses and a 2.73 GAA and three shut outs is Gerber’s record since the Olympic break; he can add an Olympic shut out to his record as well.
Throughout the first period of the preliminary game of Canada vs. Switzerland, the (predominantly Canadian) announcers spoke of the “gorgeous” passes and “marvelous” plays the Canadian team was making, and by the end of the game, the Swiss team had outplayed the Canadians gorgeously, marvelously. They’re smaller and were scrappier, and it showed on the scoreboard, a 2-0 shut out of the top-ranked Canadian team.
The Canadians, big and tall, were a step off, a stick-length away from everywhere they needed to be. The Swiss were a proverbial black fly that got in the face of the horse of a Canadian team. They choked up passing lanes, lifted the Canadians’ sticks and kept driving the net. Their penalty-kill looked like that of the top-rated NHL Detroit Red Wings’. Like a shark, they never stopped moving, never gave the Canadians the room to exercise their talent. DiPietro scored an even-strength goal in the opening period, and followed up with a 5-on-3 power play goal in the second.
The Canadian blue line does have holes in it; Eric Brewer, Scott Niedermayer and Ed Jovonovski are all no-shows due to injury. But to insinuate Team Canada doesn’t still have enough talent to not have to rely on the sole ability of starting goaltender Martin Brodeur isn’t a fair assessment of the situation. The Canadians were out-played today in Torino, with none of the intangibles going their way. Two disallowed goals and a puck that sat on the goal line without going in, while the Swiss got all those “lucky bounces” they needed.
Team Canada needs to do several things to bounce back. They need to remember they are favored. They need to take a long look around the dressing room and know they are elite and they need to play together as an elite team can. They need to punish - on the scoreboard - a team who cuts open their captain’s face (though it happened late in the game, when penalties were being doled out freely). They must settle in and play as a team. All the Swiss need to do is keep their collective pace.
|
|
|
6 comments - join this discussion...
|
|
|
|
|
|
